How much of your time is spent charging furiously through the day, fighting fires, reacting to a never-ending stream of requests, sitting through unproductive meetings or wading through an infinite to-do list?

What can you do to get on top of things so you feel productive, but not swamped; engaged, but not overwhelmed?

Here are four main areas on which you should focus:

Manage Yourself

Better self-awareness and self-management are keys to overcoming burnout and being overwhelmed.  You can blame under-funding, downsizing, job consolidation and cost cutting for all of your stress, but you can also do something about it.  Start observing your own energy patterns, and learn how to manage them better.

Exercise, eating, sleep and breathing are some of the most simple, yet most neglected, levers for overcoming burnout.  Try an experiment during the next two or three weeks:

1)    Step up your exercise regime.  Whatever it was, do more.

2)    Ease up on some of your worst eating habits.  Whatever they were, do less.

3)    Get enough sleep.

4)    Once an hour, stop whatever you are doing, and take a deep breath.

See what effect this has on your ability to concentrate, prioritize and focus at work.  Perhaps some of the details that tyrannize you aren’t that urgent after all, so you can then choose to spend your energy on what really matters.

Managing your physical energy is one part of the equation.  Managing your psychic energy is another.  The field of Positive Psychology reminds us that it possible to learn to choose a more positive outlook, which decreases negative emotions, frustration and underperformance. Notice yourself falling into automatic patterns of  nay-saying, fearfulness or criticism, and reframe your attitude in a more positive light.  You may be surprised to find yourself feeling happier and more productive.

Manage Your Environment

Where you work makes a huge difference in your ability to deal with burnout and being overwhelmed.  Take some time to think about what you can do to influence your physical environment, and make even tiny changes.  If you have a super-long commute, can you work remotely some of the time?  Can you use your commuting time more efficiently by reading on a train rather than driving to work?  Can you sometimes retreat from a noisy office to quiet space?  Can you offer “office hours” and shut your door other times so you can concentrate?

Manage Your Workflow

How and when you work also influences your ability to overcome the obstacles to high performance.  If you are a morning person, are you doing your most challenging work and creative thinking then?  Or do you have a less productive routine of drinking coffee and reading emails?  Do you plan your work for the week, or are you at the mercy of breaking crises all day long?  Do you have boundaries around work time and home time? Are you an inveterate multi-tasker?  Are you good at it, or do you end each week with nothing fully accomplished?  What adjustments need to be made?  Yes, of course you have a lot to accomplish and deadlines to meet and fires to put out, but what if you allocated an hour of strategic thinking time each week to sift out the really important issues from the rest and to brainstorm better ways of getting things accomplished?

Manage Your Co-workers

This is the most critical lever of all because it is they who dump everything on you, isn’t it?  So, if you learn to manage them better – no matter what the formal structure of your relationship, you have to manage people, up, down and sideways – you will immediately reap the benefits of less pressure and less to do.  Here are a few rules to follow:

1      Trust others to produce good work.  Be clear, specific and appreciative.  Also, delegate.  You are not the only person in the world capable of doing everything on your plate.

2      You don’t have to say yes to everything.  Fear of appearing a slacker and worry about losing future opportunities cloud your ability to set realistic boundaries in an honest, tactful way.  Be creative and helpful in your refusal to take on unmanageable tasks; know your limits, and don’t risk disappointing others by failing to deliver.

3      Ask for help.  People often get locked in their own silos and carry their burden of overwork silently, but help could be there if asked for.  Others may bring a fresh perspective or could offer important insights as to how to solve problems to considerably lighten your workload.

4      Communicate with intent.  Watch out for those long conversations that ramble and don’t get anywhere.  Be succinct, specific and generous, and you will be surprised at how your own and your team’s effectiveness and productivity increases.

Follow all of these tips, and feeling overwhelmed and burnt out will be a thing of the past.

© Copyright, 2009, Fredia Woolf. Used with permission.

Fredia Woolf, MBA, is the founder of Woolf Consulting, a leadership and change management consultancy.  She works with leaders to define and create their desired legacy, and builds the capacity of individuals and teams to increase their effectiveness and accelerate the accomplishment of positive results.

She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com